


Event Horizon

by ExpositionFairy



Series: We Are the Pawns in Our Own Game [1]
Category: Tron - All Media Types, Tron: Evolution
Genre: Gen, Major Spoilers for Tron: Evolution, Other, References to events in Tron: Betrayal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-13
Updated: 2012-11-13
Packaged: 2017-11-18 14:54:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/562282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ExpositionFairy/pseuds/ExpositionFairy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>e·vent ho·ri·zon</p><p>Noun:<br/>A theoretical boundary around a black hole beyond which no light or matter can escape.  In layman's terms, the "point of no return".</p>
            </blockquote>





	Event Horizon

**Author's Note:**

> Can be read as the first part of a trilogy along with [False Light](http://archiveofourown.org/works/345411) and [The Shape of Things to Come](http://archiveofourown.org/works/348009).

_This appeared as a moral dilemma_  
 _‘Cause at first, it was weird_  
 _Though I swore to eliminate_  
 _The worst of the plague that devoured humanity_  
 _It’s true: I was vague on the “how”_  
 _So how can it be that **you**_  
 _Have shown me the light?_

_\--------------------_

_Do you really think those fools knew you without any help from me?  No!  I had to give you a horn they could see!_  
  
The memory of the line, from one of the dozens of books Flynn had brought and he’d devoured (back in the beginning, when he’d been the one Flynn shared them with), sends a rush of emotion through Clu as he watches the inner ring of the disc in the upload dock before him light up segment-by-segment.  It feels good.  It feels  _right_ , although part of him still burns with fury that he has to resort to this at all, that he has to risk  _his system_  and  _his people_ in order to tear the blinders away from everyone’s eyes once and for all.  Flynn and Tron’s especially.  
  
It used to be different; it used to be that he and Flynn had shared their vision so seamlessly that they’d hardly needed to speak to one another as they built the system together.  Flynn had shared  _everything_  with Clu, dreams and stories and hope and grief.  And when Flynn hadn’t been there to share with, when he’d been distracted by his family and his duties in his own world, he had Tron.  He’d  _always_  had Tron.  Clu had been able to express things to Tron he never quite could with his Creator, the doubts he sometimes had and the frustration when his User failed to communicate for decicycles on end and the hard decisions involved in building and maintaining the perfect system that he and Flynn both wanted.  They’d worked together and  raced and argued and sparred and  _talked_.  When Flynn was there, when the three of them were together, there’d seemed no force or entity in this or any other universe that could stop them.  They’d formed a unit, each fitting neatly against the other’s edges, and for a while, just a little while, it had almost been perfect.  
  
Not anymore.    
  
Clu  _needs_  them, and he’s losing them.  More and more every millicycle.  And if he had to choose an example, a single face to represent the force that’s warping their perfect triangle out of true, it’s the face of the man standing in wait at the enormous observation window across the room, back turned and open disc port bared to Clu’s narrowed eyes.  
  
It isn’t just jealousy.  It  _isn’t_.  After all, the whole system is cracking and groaning under the unbalanced load the ISOs have forced on it.  Stopping them from endlessly spawning hadn’t been enough (worse, it’d been the first wedge between himself and Tron, and recognizing and responding to major system threats was supposed to be Tron’s function); the faults are still spreading, bugs and glitches ruining cycles upon cycles of work.  Flynn can’t— _won’t_ —see the truth, too deep in thrall to his “miracle” to recognize them for what they really are, and Tron…even  _Tron_ , now… Clu grits his teeth, hands knotting into fists on either side of the upload dock as he stares at the ISO’s unprotected back.    
  
Clu knows where Flynn’s  fascination with  _this_  one comes from, of course.  He knows even if Flynn himself doesn’t on a conscious level.  He remembers his User’s deep grief over the death of his counterpart in the outer world, his pain and rage at the universe for taking his Jordan away from him.  Then the ISOs had appeared, Jalen second among them, and Flynn had zeroed in on him almost at once.  He’d spent more and more time with Jalen, tutoring him and sharing all the things he’d once shared with Clu; he’d babbled excitedly to Clu about the designs the ISO had shown him for a new city— _look at them, man, can you believe he came up with all this without any User input whatsoever?  He just knew, man!_ —a city he’d then given Jalen the go-ahead to build in a system that was already straining under overclocked processing loads.   _Without_  consulting Clu.  Arjia had been the last straw, really; seeing Jalen stealing into the Games via (laughably inept) subterfuge and using techniques he’d almost certainly been taught by Tron himself had just added insult to injury.  
  
That’s why he has to do this, despite the risk, which he would never take if he weren’t absolutely certain it was well within the margin of control.  To force Flynn to see the truth at last: that the universe hasn’t given him anything back, and the ISOs are no miracle.  
  
And if Flynn  _still_  refuses to see, if Tron still allows his loyalty to the User (no matter how glitched or corrupted) to override his duty to the system and to Clu as his Administrator and his friend…well, he’s got a plan in place for that event, too.  
  
A chime from below him brings him out of his reverie.  [ _Upload Complete_ ], the inner ring of the disc glowing and pulsing softly.  
  
Jalen glances back at the chime, head tilted slightly in curiosity and concern.  “Is everything alright, Administrator?”  
  
Clu smiles.

**Author's Note:**

> Quotes are from the song "Brand New Day" from _Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog_ and _The Last Unicorn_ by Peter S. Beagle.


End file.
